December, 2019 – Aliyah just had to take us to check out the Cowboy Museum in Oklahoma City over the Thanksgiving weekend, since we were already in the neighborhood. Granddad had visited this extraordinary museum before, and couldn’t say enough good things about it.
Note from Grandma: The sculpture “End Of the Trail” (above) is thought provoking and controversial. To me personally, it represents never giving up, even in the worst adversity. You can see not only suffering in this figure, but a determination not to fall, but to persevere.
One of the first stops was a photo station, where visitors can pose for snapshots to help remember the visit later. Aliyah thought this was a great way to get a little “hands on” time in the museum. OK, so it was fun for all of us!
The museum gives handheld blue filters to the children so they can read questions posted around the museum and “decode” the hidden answers. The filter works by removing the red light from the message (see below). Even though Aliyah can only read a handful of words, she loved holding up the filter so we could read the questions and answers to her. She even used it to point out her favorite words of art, and she looked at everything through the filter. Definitely a big hit!
Aliyah loved ALL the sculptures, but especially the magnificent cougar, the “Canyon Princess.” This piece was sculpted from a 31 ton block of marble by Gerald Balciar.
The Canyon Princess is reportedly twice life-size, but she looked like way more than that to us. At least I hope a real cougar isn’t nearly that big!
The next area we visited housed an extensive collection of cowboy gear, including saddles, bridles, spurs, and much more. The worked leather pieces, like the saddles, were beautiful works of art that anyone could appreciate, young or old.
Nearby, we found a terra cotta horse sculpture from the Tang dynasty (circa 618-907 AD). It was donated by the one and only John Wayne in 1979. This was not Aliyah’s favorite artwork, but Grandma was impressed!
There were several displays of bridles, quirts and spurs, which didn’t look especially horse-friendly…
We also saw some native American pottery…
And LOTS of amazing paintings and sculptures. Aliyah walked around pointing out the ones she liked best, and made sure her faithful Grandma took pics of her pointing at the best works. She liked all the sculptures, and about half of the paintings, mostly those with people or sumptuous colors. Grandma was told a museum staffer that many of these artworks are worth millions, so we made sure to keep our little hands to ourselves! It was hard to keep our distance from the paintings, but we managed.
We were lucky enough to have an artist with us, Aliyah’s cousin (twice removed) Carol Smircich. Carol took some time to teach Aliyah a little bit about composition and color. In the painting below, Carol showed us how the horses in background were rendered a lighter color to show that they are farther away from the viewer. The closest figures are the darkest and brightest by contrast.
Aliyah loved the Native American art and craft displays, especially a surprising case of brightly beaded children’s sneakers. I believe they were worn for dances, but I’m not sure about that. Anyone want to help me out?
Next up, we saw a large collection of rifles and pistols, even including a few sets of dueling pistols in their cases.
Next stop, a mockup western town where kids of all ages can get pictures and see examples of how people lived and worked back when. It would have been better if the lighting was good, but as soon as we went into the “town” area, it was quite dark. Is is supposed to be a deserted western town at night? Not sure.
Time to mosey on out of the Western Town…
… and ride off into the sunset.
Aliyah found several dioramas that did a good job of showing kids what life in the old west might have looked like. Aliyah approved of how these displays combined the artifacts she had seen before, all brought together in the context of daily living. Of course she wanted to climb up and investigate more closely, but we figured the museum staff would not be amused.
We also found some more displays that were a kid-friendly height, but Aliyah delegated the reading to Grams and Granddad. Just so we would have something to do, of course.
One of the big surprises the last — a huge ballroom featuring several sets of magnificent murals. Aliyah was suitably impressed, and later she asked me if we could paint pictures on her bedroom walls. I’m pretty sure we can’t meet her expectations on that one, but perhaps something simple like basic flowers? We’ll have to see.
On our way out we stopped to evaluate the gift shop. Aliyah asked us to invest in a lovely stick horse, but sadly it would never have fit into our luggage.
Aliyah’s assessment – She loved the light filter, decoding messages, all the interactive stations, and showing us her favorite exhibits. Two little thumbs up!
About the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum
Website: https://nationalcowboymuseum.org
Address:
1700 Northeast 63rd St.
Oklahoma City, OK 73111
Email:
info@nationalcowboymuseum.org
Phone:
(405) 478-2250